Hamlet's Baptista and the Multiverse of Allusions
Hamlet claims "The Mousetrap" or "Murder of Gonzago" was an existing ("extant") historical tale [2]. In fact a Duke of Urbino (not Vienna) was poisoned; Eleanor Gonzaga was his wife. The wife of a predecessor was Battista Sforza [3].
Shakespeare made historical errors on purpose: Hamlet picks the duke’s predecessor’s wife’s name to borrow the name Baptista, so he can allude to John the Baptist, who condemned the marriage of Herod Antipas to his brother's divorced wife [4].
Hamlet wants to catch the king's conscience [5], but must avoid being too confrontational, so he borrows "Baptista" to subtly evoke (but also cleverly distract from) a biblical allusion to Jesus’ kinsman [6] who was beheaded for opposing a king’s marriage to a brother’s wife.
Clever Shakespeare. He shows us how one must be discreet, sometimes indirect, if church and government officials might censor his plays. As Polonius says,
"Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth; [...] / By indirections find directions out." [7]
Takeaways:
1. Check meanings and origins of words, but don't settle too soon - for "Baptista," or the assumption that Shakespeare didn’t know his own intentional historical errors.
2. Don't treat allusions as ciphers or shorthand, but as windows to other stories that may illuminate - like Dr. Strange or Evelyn Wang traveling through different dimensions or a multiverse [8]. It's best to read whole stories behind allusions. John the Baptist did more than wear camel hair, eat locusts and honey, baptize by the Jordan, and get beheaded.
3. Shakespeare lived in a time of censorship. He had to be clever to avoid trouble, especially writing a play with a marriage resembling that of Henry VIII to his first wife, while Henry's daughter Elizabeth I was still alive and reigning as queen.
NOTES: All references to Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu
[1] On the readings for the Third and Fourth Sundays in Advent in Elizabethan times, see The 1559 Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer (BCP), ed. John E. Booty, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1976, pages 81 (Third Sunday, Matt 11) and 82 (Fourth Sunday, John 1).
On the player queen’s name, “Baptista,” as reference to John the Baptist, see page 255, under FN for line 229: [Joseph] RITSON [notes]: "I believe it is never used singly, but compounded with Gian (for Giovanni), and meaning, of course, John the Baptist." A new variorum edition of Shakespeare : Hamlet
by Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616; Furness, Horace Howard, 1833-1912 https://archive.org/details/newvariorumediti11shak/page/254/mode/1up?q=Baptista
[2] For “extant” see 3.2.288.
— For “Murder of Gonzago,” see 2.2.564, 3.2.263,288,290.
Gonzago points to Eleonora Gonzaga, wife of Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino; who was marginalized (like Essex and Lord Strange, and poisoned like Strange).
— For more on Francesco Maria I della Rovere (1490 – 1538): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Maria_I_della_Rovere,_Duke_of_Urbino (accessed 1/22/2023).
— For an interesting (though somewhat outdated) consideration, see G. Bullough’s 1935 article, “The Murder of Gonzago” in The Modern Language Review, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Oct., 1935), pp. 433-444 (12 pages) https://doi.org/10.2307/3716252
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3716252
— For more on Lord Strange, who died of poison, like Rovere, see
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/04/welcome-lazarus-lord-stranges-men-for.html
[3] For Hamlet’s reference to the duke’s wife as “Baptista,” see 3.2.263. This points to Battista Sforza (1446 – 1472), the wife of a predecessor to the duke, Federico da Montefeltro, and not to the name of the wife of Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (wife, Eleonora Gonzaga, 1493 – 1550). Hamlet distorts history on purpose for the sake of referring to the name Baptista, which points to John the Baptist, an important biblical allusion.
[4] For the story of John the Baptist, Herod Antipas, Salome, and the beheading of John, see Mark 6:14-29 and Matthew 14:3-12.
[5] Hamlet 2.2.634.
[6] Luke 1:36, with Elizabeth as “kinswoman” to Mary, has traditionally been interpreted as implying Jesus and John the Baptist were perhaps second cousins, although some scripture scholars recognize that this may represent poetic license.
[7] 2.1.70-73.
[8] For the fictional character of Evelyn Wang, see the film, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).
— For the fictional character of Dr. Strange traveling through different dimensions, see the film, Doctor Strange (2016). Strange appears in later Marvel films, but the idea of the multiverse culminates in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).
— Star Trek films and TV episodes also explore time travel and alternative dimensions, as does Dr. Who. Science fiction often explores time travel (H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, 1895 novella) which can also be an appropriate metaphor for literary allusions.
— See also Spanish playwright Enrique Gaspar’s El Anacronópete (1887).
IMAGES
Top right: Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist (cropped), c.1515–25, by Bernardino Luini. Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Public domain, via https://collections.mfa.org/objects/31925
Top left: Portrait of Battista Sforza, c. 1472–1473 (cropped), by Piero della Francesca. Left half of diptych that, on the right, includes her husband, Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. Uffizi Gallery, Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battista_sforza.jpg
Lower left: Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere (cropped), 1536-38. Titian. Uffizi Gallery. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Retrato_de_Francesco_Maria_della_Rovere,_por_Tiziano.jpg
Lower rigtht: Portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga (cropped), c.1538, Titian. Uffizi Gallery. Public domain, via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Titian_-_Eleonora_Gonzaga_-_WGA22983.jpg
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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